Edit: guess this is an obvious consequence of the internet connecting everything. Everyone who's into music will have heard about and read about the same songs and albums. Whereas once people were more ensconced in their bubble of purchases.

Has never been any different - before the net it was all the same bands/records the music press was writing about. It's just things spread faster these days.

seems like lots of magazines and blogs approach it (perhaps unconsciously) as "what's the best out of all the stuff that's gotten massive hype/cool hipster cred?" as opposed to simply "what do i think is the best music of the year?". there's always been some overlap but the internet seems to have made it a lot more common.

not that anyone cares about my list, but when i've put them together in the past they tend to be what i listened to and enjoyed the most in the past 12 months, which doesn't necessarily mean just new stuff released in the past year. i usually belatedly discover at least a half-dozen albums from years past that get the most plays at home.

i think the net has just made music mags much more conscious of how others might see their lists (basically the net has made everyone much more aware of the judgement of others). all the stuff you had already about needing to look cool but X 10.

Something very drugged and soporific about music these days, it's the same with most of the RNB I selected and 'Black Beatles' e.g.

idk about drugginess but i see it as an increased casualisation to how music sounds (maybe an internalised awareness of its place in the culture).

And if someone were to say Luke that song isn't it real it's a mirage it's a simulacrum I'd be inclined to agree, probably, but I also think that ersatz quality is the defining feature of music from this decade. It's not a bug it's a feature as the tech kids say.

The Following User Says Thank You to luka For This Useful Post:

If you were marooned on an island for the last thirty years and the Solange song washed ashore alongside whatever it's an ersatz version of, could you detect that one was an ersatz version of the other?

In that it nailed the feeling of absence. None of this is new of course but I do think it's where we we've ended up. Vapourwave doesn't interest me as music but as diagnosis I do think it's perspicacious. I get the same feeling from the Haim song I'm always referencing. All the pastiche threads I try and fail to get off the ground are really about the same thing.